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Giving up on the 38% goal

08/23/12 03:19 PMUpdated 08/07/13 08:15 AM

Romney immigration adviser Kris Kobach.

Associated Press

Just yesterday, one of the leaders of Mitt Romney’s Hispanic leadership team said the campaign has a specific target: “[O]ur goal is to hit 38 percent with the Hispanic vote.” That would be a significant increase over McCain/Palin, which won 31% of the Latino vote in 2008.

Arizona immigration law author and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach is representing 10 immigration agents in a lawsuit filed Thursday against Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, for policies they say prevent them from doing their job of defending the Constitution. […]

The suit goes after two key Obama policies on immigration: prosecutorial discretion to focus on criminals and repeat offenders, as well as deferred action for undocumented young people.

So, the Obama administration is pursuing an immigration policy that used to enjoy bipartisan support, pursuing the goals of the DREAM Act, and Kobach is filing to suit to combat the policy.

And who’s Kris Kobach? He’s the anti-immigration official who advises Mitt Romney on immigration policy.

Kobach’s lawsuit, incidentally, coincides with the completion of the Republican Party’s new national platform. And guess what it says on immigration: “In their debates this week in Tampa, Fla., over the party platform, Republican delegates hammered out an immigration plank calling for tough border enforcement and opposing ‘any forms of amnesty’ for illegal immigrants, instead endorsing ‘humane procedures to encourage illegal aliens to return home voluntarily,’ a policy of self-deportation.”

I’m going to go out on a limb and say 38 percent is overly ambitious. Maybe Romney should aim for about half that.